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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2021)
2B | WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021 | APPEAL TRIBUNE Rafting Continued from Page 1B Exactly one week earlier I’d traveled to Andy and Bax Outdoor Store in Portland to purchase a 10-foot blue oar that was, at that moment, lashed to the side of our raft and the only thing preventing our trip from en- tering a phase of powerful misfortune. Carefully, I unstrapped the spare oar and put it into the oarlock, pushed out into the river and began float- ing toward Clarno Rapids. Over the next three days and two nights, we’d run whitewater, get pummeled by rain and wind, go swimming and fishing in desert heat, and camp at two of the most beautiful campsites I’ve ever seen. I have probably done more challenging things. But taking two small children down a wilderness river cer- tainly ranks among the more gloriously exhausting ex- periences of my life. The John Day River permits, setup The John Day is one of Oregon’s great rivers. It’s the second-longest un-dammed river in the United States and cuts through deep canyons in a set- ting on par with a small-scale Grand Canyon. It’s typi- cally floated in May and June when there’s enough wa- ter in the river and the weather is typically good — warm but not boiling. The John Day is known for being a mostly mellow float, with only a handful of significant rapids and plenty of great campsites. That can make it a good op- tion for younger kids. Last spring, I wrote about how the opening of Thir- tymile Boat Launch had made it possible to split up the river’s most famous section. A trip that once required 70 miles of floating — usually done over a week or more — can now be done in two halves: a 30-mile up- per run (Clarno Boat Ramp to Thirtymile) and a 40- mile lower run (Thirtymile to Cottonwood Canyon State Park). Last year’s trip down the lower section went so well The John Day River features desert scenery, great campgrounds and plenty of adventure in the 30 mile rafting trip between Clarno and Thirtymile boat launches in the Oregon desert northeast of Madras. ZACH URNESS/STATESMAN JOURNAL with my then-5-year-old that I decided to return this year with both kids, now 4 and 6. After a few false starts, I was able to get a permit from Recreation.gov for the upper 30-mile run. The upper stretch does have more challenging rap- ids, but having brought the kids down the North San- tiam’s whitewater a number of times, I felt OK about it. With permit in hand, I set up a shuttle for my car, made sure I had all the gear required — from that extra oar to a wilderness potty. My good pal Hannah Hoffman, a former reporter for the Statesman Journal, was cool enough to come along and help with the girls. Finally, in late May, it was time to hit the road. Day 1: Singalong, and onto the river C. O. (Buck) Boswell “Beloved Husband, Brother, Father, Grandfa- ther, Great Grandfather” Passed away, June 7, 2021 Born in 1931 at the family farm outside of Wentworth MO. To Clar- ence O Boswell & Rachel M Boswell. Buck was 5th of 8 children. He attended school in a 1 room school house. Buck joined the Navy at 17 years of age in 1948 and volunteered for submarine duty. He married Shirley R Hamilton in 1952.Together they raised 3 sons Bruce, Steve & Clark. Buck operated a gas station in Dickenson ND where he met Mike Barrett in 1961, Buck went to work for Mike hauling mobile homes part time while operating the station. As the business grew Buck went fulltime with Barrett and moved the family to Oregon in 1964 to open the west coast division of Barrett Mobile Home Transport. Buck was well-known and respected in the industry and served on the board of directors for the Oregon Manufactured Housing Association as well as being involved in multiple State County and City committees, helping to write safer regulations for the transportation of manufactured homes. Buck retired as division manager in 2001 with 37 years. Buck married Jeanette in 1986 and in 2010 they moved to Arizona to enjoy their retirement and have celebrated 35 years marriage. Buck has been a Mason for 50 years and is a lifetime member of the Vista Lodge in Salem Oregon. Buck is preced- ed in death by both parents, sister Harriet Cable, Lee’s Summit Missouri. sister Mabel Holland, Sarcoxie Missouri. brother Joe Boswell, Wentworth Missouri and daughter in law Sharon Boswell of Silverton Oregon. Survivors include brother Pete Boswell, Waxahachie Texas, sisters Helen Sageser, Reed’s Missouri. Marie Dame, Carthage Missouri and Barbera Selland, Mitchell South Dakota. Children: Bruce and Alison Boswell, Salem Oregon. Steve and Judy Boswell, Bend Oregon. Clark Boswell, Silverton Oregon and stepson Dan Dickson, as well as 10 grandchildren & 17 great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be September 14th @1:30pm at the Willamette Na- tional Cemetery in Portland Oregon I woke the girls up as early as possible on a Tuesday morning in late May, put them in the already-loaded rig and headed off for Santiam Pass and the other side of the Cascades. The hope was that they’d sleep the first few hours in the car, but Lucy was too excited. “Dad, let’s sing our mountains song!” On long trips, we get bored so at one point invented our own little ditty to celebrate our trips into wild places. The mountain song goes like this: Ooooh, it’s early in the morning Before the sun can rise Daddy and Lucy and Rollie Are going for a drive We’re not going north. We’re not going west. We’re going to the mountains, to have a big quest Oooh, we’re going to the mountains We’re gonna have some fun We’re going to the mountains don’t worry everyone We might run a river We might see a bear But we won’t know, until we get there. There’s a verse for the Coast as well, but I’ll spare you. After a stop at McDonalds and lots of Magic Tree House audio books, we arrived at a boat ramp and bridge in the middle of the high desert known as Clar- no — not far from the Clarno unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. We met Rita, our shuttle driver from Thirtymile Shuttles, who would drive our car and trailer to the take-out. She chatted with the girls while I got the boat ready. “Is it just you three?” Rita asked. “Nope,” I said. “Our friend should be here soon. Probably smart to have someone to hold onto the girls in Clarno Rapids, just in case things go sideways.” Day 1: Near calamity, a thunderstorm The first five miles of the John Day below Clarno is mellow. The river floats through agricultural land before cliffs started to rise, the water picked up and I could tell we were entering the top of Clarno Rapids, the gateway to the wilder river. I parked the boat and scouted the rapids. Here’s how the guidebook describes it: “Clarno Rap- ids, Class III-IV, is a three-fourths mile series of boul- ders, chutes and two main drops. It is different at every flow.” As I scouted, I was looking for one main thing: To- ward the end, there is a fence of boulders that requires running a narrow chute between rocks. At normal wa- ter levels, the chute is clean with just a wave below it — pretty easy. But as the river gets lower, a “tooth” rock appears that’s difficult to avoid in a large raft like mine. “Dangit,” I said. Oregon’s drought meant the river was lower than it should have been in late May, and the tooth rock was there. If it was just me, this wouldn’t be a major con- cern — rafts are made to hit rocks sometimes. But the idea of nailing the rock and jolting my 4-year-old into the water tied my stomach in knots. When I returned to the boat, I discovered we were down one oar. With a deep breath, I attached the new oar, pushed out into the river and pulled hard to the right, navigat- ing around boulders in the upper part of the rapids without issue. Then something caught Hannah’s eye. “It’s our oar!” she said. The wayward oar was sitting in an eddy just above the lower half of the rapids. I pulled over, grabbed it and attached it to the boat before continuing down waves and around rocks into the most challenging part of the rapids. Finally, I saw the critical chute and lined up the boat. As we swooped down it, I pulled hard right to avoid hitting the tooth rock head-on. But we still hit it, caus- ing the raft to tilt sideways for just a moment. Hannah held both girls tight and the boat flopped back down as we continued around more boulders and waves before exiting the whitewater. “Scary,” said Lucy. “Wow,” said Hannah. “I need a beer,” I said. Just downstream, the girls spotted a nice campsite on the right. After a big day, we decided to stop early. Then we felt the first drop of rain. Setting up camp wasn’t bad, but as the rain grew heavier, we went inside the tent and played cards. When the rain passed it was still warm outside, so the girls and I hiked into the desert hills above our camp- site while Hannah caught a much-deserved break in the hammock. The air smelled of sage and juniper as we climbed to views of a canyon wilderness below a blue sky mixed with dark clouds, with sunshine shimmering off the rain falling in the distance. I was proud of my girls. It had been a long and some- times scary day. But here, with Lucy’s rainbow skirt flapping in the wind and Rollie searching for the pink flowers that bloomed on local cactus, they were un- daunted and ready for more adventure. Day 2: Deep into the canyon At its best, the John Day River morphs into a float- ing dream: huge canyon scenery, warm desert temper- atures, great fishing, occasional rapids and campsites with sand beaches. For us, day two brought all of the above. Well, kind of. We started off with some fun rapids, a bouncing set of Class IIs that splashed the girls in the face but this time in a fun way. After a short first day, we needed to make some river miles, so I rowed pretty hard, hoping to get below Basalt Rapids (Class II-III) by lunchtime and do some fishing. Last year, Lucy and I caught tons of smallmouth bass from the raft, and I wanted that same experience See RAFTING, Page 3B Miller Continued from Page 1B Simple Cremation $795 Simple Direct Burial $995 Church Funeral $2965 SALEM 275 Lancaster Drive SE Salem, OR 97317 (503) 581-6265 TUALATIN 8970 SW Tualatin Sherwood Rd Tualatin, OR 97062 (503) 885-7800 PORTLAND 832 NE Broadway Portland, OR 97232 (503) 783-3393 TIGARD 12995 SW Pacifi c Hwy Tigard, OR 97223 (503) 783-6869 EASTSIDE 1433 SE 122nd Ave Portland, OR 97233 (503) 783-6865 MILWAUKIE 16475 SE McLoughlin Blvd Milwaukie, OR 97267 (503) 653-7076 “Easy Online Arrangements” OR-GCI0571428-02 www.CrownCremationBurial.com There is a mailbox in our neighbor- hood that Harry the hound and I pass with some regularity on our morning walks. The name on the side says “ART NEZ” with the faintest, almost invisible outlines of two letters, one before art and the other before nez. If you look hard, you can just make out “M” before the former and “I” pre- ceding the latter. It used to say “Marti- nez.” It always brings a smile because it reminds me of a sign in my youth for a business with the word “PEERLESS” in the name. Some wag had covered over the “R.” Happy Fourth of July! This week’s highlights Item 1: More chances to kick ‘but’: It’s a bad-news, good-news situation for halibut anglers off the central coast from Cape Falcon, near Manzanita, south to Humbug Mountain near Brookings. The bad news is that high winds and lumpy seas kept angler pressure down during the spring all-depth season. The resulting good news is that with more than 120,000 pounds left in the allowed catch, fishing will be open dur- ing backup days July 15 through 17 and July 29 through 31. Item 2: Tide one on: The next minus series of clamming tides runs the early mornings of July 9 through 12. The bonus being that the lowest of the series fall on the weekend July 10 and 11. You can look up the times and tides for the hot spots on the coast online at saltwatertides.com. Warning! Boilerplate on the road ahead. As always, be sure to check before heading out by calling the Oregon De- partment of Agriculture’s toll-free shellfish biotoxin hotline at (800) 448- 2474 or go online to the State of Ore- gon’s Recreational Shellfish Biotoxin Closures at oregon.gov/oda/ Thought for the week: Whether or not the fish are biting, this time of year you always can depend on the mosqui- toes. Contact Henry via email at Henry- MillerSJ@ gmail.com
